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It’s hatch chile season! I don’t know if hatch chiles are a big thing outside of the southwestern United States, but they have been on my radar for several years now, and their popularity only seems to be growing. Fine by me!

I absolutely loved this egg dish. The flour helped make it super light and fluffy (or puffy I guess) almost like a soufflé, which made breakfast feel kind of fancy. Plus, it was super easy to make! I liked using the cottage cheese in it too since it gave the dish a creamy texture and an extra dose of protein.

I rarely buy salsa, but I was super intrigued by a jar of roasted hatch chile salsa I saw at Costco and decided to just go for it. Excellent decision. It was so good, I had to make an additional trip to Costco and get two more jars the next day, but at $7.99 a pop, it was turning into a rather expensive habit. Naturally, I decided to try to make my own! I used a pound of hatch chiles, a pound of jalapeños, around four pounds of tomatoes of various shapes and forms, one extremely large onion that weighed nearly two pounds. Of the five heads of garlic pictured, tragically only four just four of them made it into the salsa. I roasted everything over the flames on my stove (using this method, it’s super simple), except the garlic, which I did in the oven. You could definitely do everything in the oven if you wanted. Once everything was peeled, I threw them in the blender and spun everything around a few times until I go the consistency I wanted and proceeded to use this salsa on absolutely everything. It was delicious.

This week I am sharing some of favorite brunch recipes. I absolutely love brunch and summer weekends seem to just demand them. These recipes don’t demand too much cook and can mostly be prepared ahead to time, which gives you more time to relax, enjoy your weekend and enjoy some extra mimosas with your friends.

This frittata is pretty much perfect if you ask me. It’s easy to make, it can help you clean out your vegetable drawer and it reheats wonderfully. I just used the vegetables I had on hand, but you can add just about anything you want to this frittata. Broccoli, bell peppers, jalapeños or fresh herbs, like basil or chives, would all be great additions.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until beginning to brown. Then add the green onions, mushrooms and garlic and cook until mushrooms begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and spinach. Sauté for an additional 1 to 2 minutes or just until the spinach is wilted. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper.

In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs, cheese, salt, and pepper.

Finish cooking in the oven for 25-35 minutes, until the eggs have completely set in the center.

I started the fall semester yesterday morning. In order to recover from the trauma, I’m taking a long weekend trip (can 6 days really be considered a ‘long weekend’?) up to San Francisco to visit some friends. What better excuse that to share some tried and true San Francisco favorites.

This dish is a San Francisco classic. It originated in the 1930’s at Original Joe’s. Even though the dish is a classic, I had to put my own spin on things. I substituted extra-lean ground turkey for the ground beef. I used a ton of garlic (10 cloves, but they were all pretty small) and fresh basil and oregano from my garden. I have to admit that I like the fact that the eggs are not the main focus of this egg dish. I feel like the egg is just there as a loose binder rather than the main feature. It makes for a nice change from a traditional Quiche or frittata. It also makes the dish much more adaptable to meals outside the morning hours. In true San Francisco style, Joe’s Special is traditionally served with sourdough. I have yet to discover gluten-free sourdough, so I served my scramble with a couple slices of gluten-free toast (Canyon Bakehouse is my favorite at the moment). Not quite the same as sourdough, but it did the job.

I made Joe’s Special for Sunday Brunch over the weekend and this morning I heated up the leftovers for breakfast. It was even better! This would be a great made-ahead meal for brunch or for anytime you want to have a meal that you can reheat in a hurry.

Joe’s Special

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, diced

5+ garlic cloves, minced

1 1/4 pounds extra-lean ground turkey

3 cups fresh baby spinach, chopped

1 Tablespoon fresh basil, finally chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)

1 teaspoon fresh oregano (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)

1/3 cups parmesan cheese, finely grated

3 eggs, well beaten

1/4 cup milk/cream/half and half

a generous dash of tabasco (optional)

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and add the Tabasco, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. Set aside.

In a large skillet heat the oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until beginning to brown. Add in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add in ground turkey; cook, stirring, until browned and all moisture evaporates, about 10 minutes. Add mushrooms; cook, stirring, until beginning to soften. Add spinach; cook, stirring, until wilted. Add eggs; cook until eggs are cooked and mixture is slightly dry, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; sprinkle with Parmesan. Serve with bread.

I made these in an attempt to use up some summer fruits that were rapidly approaching their use or lose stage. There are endless summer fruit combinations you can use, so go wild. I think strawberries and peaches go together amazingly, but I could imagine raspberries, blueberries, pluots, apricots and all sorts of other fruits working perfectly.

These pancakes are perfect for brunch! If I was making these for a weekend brunch, I would definitely add a glug of bourbon to the pan when you add in the peaches, just to give it an extra decadent, boozy, brunchy feel.

I will say, I had a hard time getting these pancakes to cook through, hence the crispy looking edges. I think I was being slightly impatient with heating my pan (there really is only so long a girl can wait for breakfast after spin class…), so I had to sacrifice give a few utter failures to my official tasters (aka the pups). The crispy edges did not have a burnt flavor, which was lucky, just a different texture.

These made for a quick and easy weekend breakfast. I was a bit bored with my regular breakfast fare, so I decided to try something new. The lemon flavor really comes through and the pancakes are really The blueberries and blackberries definitely make this recipe for me. I’m not big on maple syrup, so I squeezed one of the lemonsI used for zest over the pancakes and berries and it was perfect. I am sure syrup could be great, but it’s just not my thing. If fresh berries are hard to come by this time of year, frozen could be used in a pinch, or even a light smear of berry jam (I would recommend blueberry) or lemon curd would go really well with these pancakes.

This recipe yields a lotof batter! I will say that I did thin out the batter quite a bit (the Better Batter got a little gummy on me), but I think I got 14 or 16 pancakes out of it, either way it was way too much for just two people. I know you could increase the amount of batter used in each pancake, but I think the smaller size works a lot better for the fluffiness of the recipe. If the pancakes were bigger, I think they would lose some of that. If you do have to thin out the batter, I would recommend using lemon juice if possible, then water. Lemon juice really adds to the flavor and I think water would dilute that a lot.

In a large bowl, beat together buttermilk, egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and ricotta cheese by hand.

In a clean bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.

Add dry ingredients to buttermilk mixture until just combined; gently fold in egg whites until they are just incorporated.

Coat a large nonstick griddle or pan with cooking spray; heat over medium heat. Spoon batter into pan in batches using about a 1/4-cup batter for each pancake; cook until lightly browned, about 2 to 3 minutes per side (I found that the gluten free flour took longer). Remove pancakes to a tray in a warm oven and repeat with remaining ingredients

If you are making Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, I am certain you have all of the ingredients needed to make these right now. You can mix these waffles up in less than 5 minutes. Then it’s just up to your waffle maker to finish the job. The batter could also be used for pancakes as well. I like these waffles because they are perfect for a fast and easy Thanksgiving breakfast and should help tide everyone over until the main event.

I am not a really big fan of pumpkin things, but I actually really liked these. The pumpkin flavor was present, but not overwhelming and really good with the spices. I served these with maple syrup (which I’m normally not a fan of either) and they were perfect together. Absolutely perfect. I would also imagine that these would be quite good with apple butter. I have a mini waffle maker and I got 18 mini waffles out of this recipe. There were waffles for days on end. Depending on the type of waffle iron you have, your waffle mileage may vary.

So, it’s Thanksgiving tomorrow here in the States. The last thing over everyone’s minds is probably breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so it shouldn’t be overlooked just because the main event is later in the day. I’ve the hard way over cooking several Thanksgiving dinners to know that a hungry chef is a cranky chef. Take a quick break this morning and make a delicious breakfast to get you through the day. I have to admit, my cooking time was over 30 minutes (more like 35 than 25), so not the world’s quickest breakfast. I’m going to write that off the increased baking time to the gluten-free flour, which is temperamental at best.

This was the first time I ever had or made a Dutch baby pancake and I have to say that it lived up to the hype. I would highly recommend this for special breakfast or a delicious brunch.

In a bowl, stir together the pears, cranberries, the 1/4 cup granulated sugar and the cinnamon. In a 9-inch French skillet over medium heat, melt 2 Tablespoons of the butter. Add the apple mixture and sauté until the pears are tender and the cranberries have broken down, about 8-12 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Put an 11-inch French skillet or ovenproof sauté pan in a cold oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Meanwhile, put the eggs in a blender and blend on medium speed until very frothy, about 1 minute. Add the flour, salt, the 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar and the milk and blend on medium speed for 2 minutes, stopping the blender to scrape down the sides as needed.

When the oven is preheated, put the remaining 3 Tablespoons butter in the hot skillet and return it to the oven until the butter melts; do not let it brown. Carefully pour the batter into the hot skillet, then distribute the pear-cranberry mixture evenly on top. Bake until the Dutch baby is lightly browned and the sides have risen, about 25 minutes.

Remove the skillet from the oven, dust the Dutch baby with confectioners’ sugar and serve immediately with maple syrup. Serves 4 to 6.

A couple weeks ago I got the weird idea that I wanted to make my own sausage. Just patties, dealing with casings and grinding my own meat is far too gross and far too much work for brunch. I had almost forgotten about my plan, until it came time to make Sunday brunch this past weekend. Since I had a little extra time, I figured why not. Making sausage this way is really just like making mini-burgers, which made these a quick and easy addition to brunch.

I was really happy I ended up using sweet Italian sausage for this. I feel like they would have been super, super bland without the extra Italian flavors. I thought that the mustard and sage really complemented each other. I think that this could be made with plain ground chicken or turkey, but you would definitely need to add a lot more seasoning if using ‘plain’ ground meat.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook sausage patties until cooked through and golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Add more oil to skillet between batches as needed.

I really wanted to make some autumnally appropriate baked goods, but it’s still a million degrees here and the last few weeks the internet has been overloaded by pumpkin. Pumpkin is not my thing. It looks gross and even though I can’t remember what it tastes like (I’ve only had it twice), I’m pretty sure it tastes gross too. Apple seemed to be a seasonal flavor that was more my speed.

I had two problems with these when they were done. They were extremely dense. Super dense baked goods can just be the outcome of gluten free baking. It happens. I’ve also never made donuts before, let alone baked, gluten free donuts, so I’m not quite sure why these were so dense, but they were. The donuts were also insanely sweet. I know donuts are meant to be sweet, but I think the combination of sugar and applesauce (even though it was unsweetened) was just too much. If I made these again, I would probably scale down the sugar even more to maybe just 2 tablespoons. Because they were so sweet, I decided not to make a glaze for them and warm from the oven, they did not need one either.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Stir in applesauce, eggs, vanilla and butter. Beat together until well blended.

Fill each doughnut cup approximately 3/4 full. Bake 8 to 10 minutes for a round donut pan or 15 to 20 minutes for a cruller/bar pan in the preheated oven, until donuts spring back when touched. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan.

It’s almost Cinco de Mayo, which is a pretty ridiculous holiday. It’s hardly celebrated in it’s country of origin, but any excuse for Mexican food and tequila is okay with me. In preparation for Cinco de Mayo, it’s time to share some excellent Mexican recipes for any and all of your celebratory needs.

These eggs were inspired by on of my favorite breakfasts at one of my favorite diners/bars, Joe’s. You can get the best drinks and the best breakfast in the same exact spot all in the span of a few hours, it’s great. The Huevos La Mexicana at Joe’s are simple and tasty. This is an extremely easy and flavorful dish. It’s quick and simple, making it great for a quick breakfast or a brunch with a crowd. I served mine with some restaurant salsa and tortilla chips with a bit of cilantro and a lot of hot sauce on top.

Mexican Scrambled EggsServes 2

extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 tomato, diced and seeded

1 jalapeño, diced and seeded

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped

2 eggs

shredded cheese

In a small bowl or coffee cup, crack both eggs and beat together with a small dash of milk or water until yolks and whites are well mixed.

In a large skillet, heat extra virgin olive oil until shimmering. When heated add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add in jalapeño and half of the chopped cilantro, cook an additional 2 minutes.

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Welcome to my Blog!

My name is Clare and I like to cook!

This blog is about my mis-adventures in the kitchen. Every meal is quite the adventure since I live with someone with Celiac Disease and I've been recently diagnosed with a ton of different food allergies. It definitely makes for interesting times in the kitchen.

My recipes are gluten free about 95% of the time and always delicious.

I'm so glad you stumbled across my blog! I hope you enjoy it!

Contact me!

Feel free to email me at clarecancook(at)gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!